Authors: Jayashree Pasalkar, Vedant Mahanavar, Pranav Patil, Om Mahajan
Abstract: Counterfeit academic certificates have increased sig- nificantly enough so they now create problems for many organiza- tions (i.e., schools, employers, government agencies) because they reduce faith in the ability of organizations to verify credentials. Most current methods used to manage academic certificates are primarily manual and/or based on centralized database storage; therefore, most are subject to various forms of manipulation (e.g., unauthorized access/modification), delayed processing, and additional risks associated with verification processes. Blockchain technology has recently emerged as a possible solution for authenticating certificates securely; however, many of the current blockchain implementations are built upon platforms such as Ethereum, which experience both high transaction costs, and limited scalability. To overcome these constraints, this research will present a blockchain-based certificate management and verification system that utilizes the high-performance and low cost attributes of the Solana blockchain platform with a Django- based backend system. With this system, academic institutions can issue certificates (while maintaining the original formatting), or register external certifications issued to students/alumni. All generated certificates are hashed using the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, and each unique hash is stored on the Solana blockchain via a Rust-based Anchor smart contract. Upon receipt of a certificate to be verified, the proposed system hashes the submitted certificate, and then compares its hash value with the unalterable blockchain record to authenticate/verify the legitimacy of the submitted certificate, or identify if the submitted certificate was altered/tampered. In combination with the security provided by blockchain, the scalability of the Solana blockchain, and an efficient backend architecture, this proposed system provides a highly effective method of verifying the authenticity of academic certificates, while reducing the risk of fraudulent activity.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19508445
